My buddy Bernie has been wanting to do this ride for a long time. I was not to interested in doing this on my heavy Titus El Guapo 6″ travel full suspension bike. My new bike however was perfect for this ride so I decided to go for it. Though I did not really have time to prepare for the ride and get used to my bike. I was concerned with the slightly different geometry on this bike from what I was used to. I was concerned I may have knee pain as I do when I do a big ride on my road bike if I have not ridden it in a while. I was happy that was not the case on this ride. Though I did have some sore muscles in places that don’t usually get sore. Such as my hamstrings and hip. Also my hands, forearms and feet were killing me because I am not used to riding a bike without rear suspension.
The ride started at La Jolla Campground near Point Mugu. This is the Northern Trailhead for the Backbone Trail. This section is closed to bikes so we had to take the road to bypass this section. We rode on PCH then up Yerba Buena Road to where the Backbone Trail crosses Yerba Buena and we jumped on the trail at this point. About a mile in we made a quick stop for water at a house just off the trail.
We kept a good pace with minimal stops for the next 30 miles. Once we got to Malibu Canyon we would have to do another bypass on the road. This one was short at around 4 miles. Then we rode dirt through Red Rock Park to Topanga Canyon. We stopped at a market in Topanga for what would be our longest break of about 35 minutes. I had a sandwich and a vitamin water and we were off. A few more miles of road and we were in Topanga State Park. Once on the dirt we continued climbing. At this point I was looking forward to getting to the Hub. I knew it would be mostly downhill from there to the Car!
The Rogers Road section of the Backbone Trail went really quick and we were at Will Rogers State Historic Park in no time. Bernie knows the roads around here really well and took us through some nearly car free streets back to the cars.
It was a perfect day for the ride with cool weather. There were only three of us on the ride: Bernie, Dennis and I. With a small group we were able to keep a good pace and finished the ride in a respectable time.
Ride Stats: 63 miles with 9259′ elevation gain.
Hans' Blog 
Lovelly blog you have here